Cold Embrace
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: Drabble (Flash Fiction Project). Side story to "Good Vibrations". Getting turned into a popsicle wasn't on Merry's to-do list. But given the choice, especially if it might help save someone she loves, a frozen hug isn't the worst way to go out. Cisco/OC


"What is that?" asked Merry. They were alone and the alarms at S.T.A.R. Labs were blaring. Wells was still AWOL, Caitlin was on a coffee run and Barry hadn't shown up yet.

Cisco quickly pushed his chair along to one of the computers, surveying the footage from the CCTV cameras. "It's a security breach."

"Where?" As Merry followed suit, she realised that half of the camera views had been obscured - it was like trying to see something through frosted glass.

"I have no idea... Judging by the cameras that have been tampered with, I'm guessing somewhere around the front of the building?"

No sooner had he said it, the door to the Cortex was kicked open by a black boot with a loud bang. Wearing the boots was a man in a hooded coat with what looked like dark skiing goggles pulled over his eyes and a very high-tech looking gun in his hands. "Morning, Cisco." The light tone didn't match anything else. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"What do you want?" Merry couldn't tell if Cisco was trying to sound intimidating. He'd jumped up from his seat when the door had crashed open and was now standing with one arm out protectively in front of her. She wished he wouldn't. She had powers and he didn't.

The man with the gun seemed amused by the gesture. "I want some more tech. Since there doesn't seem to be any Flash around to help you, this'll be much easier than I thought. So I think I'll just go and help myself." He flicked the gun over in Merry's direction. "I see you finally got yourself a real girlfriend. Cooperate by letting me do my job and no one gets hurt."

As he pointed the gun at Merry, Cisco hurriedly stepped forward with his hands up. "No, don't. I'll cooperate."

Merry could see that the man had no intentions of cooperating himself. As soon as Cisco moved, he trained the gun on him instead. Merry saw his finger twitch on the trigger and knew, in that moment, that he was going to shoot. "Cisco, watch out!"

She threw up both hands and thrust as much power at him as she could muster. The force behind the telekinetic energy sent Cisco spinning across the room and crashing into one of the metal tables. But Merry wasn't like Barry - she hadn't been fast enough. The white blast from the gun still caught Cisco on the chest as she pushed him out of the way.

"Cisco!" she cried, running over and falling to her knees at his side. He was gasping hard, like he'd had cold water thrown over him, and Merry soon realised why. Hard layers of ice had formed around his chest, arms and along one side of his neck. "What the..."

"That's a pretty nifty ability you've got there." Merry jerked her head around to see the man watching carefully, gun still raised. "I'd be interested to see more, but for now, I'm going to get what I came for. Don't try to stop me or the next shot will be fatal." Merry glared at him, but she didn't want to risk anything worse happening to Cisco, so she watched in silence as the man blasted all of the computers and communications software. "My advice? You may wanna do something to help Cisco there. They say that any level of frost bite can be deadly."

And, with that, he left through the next door. Cold mist began to pour in through the cracks once it closed. Merry held up a hand and immediately used her power to try and push against it from where she was kneeling, but it didn't budge. The man had sealed it shut from outside.

She grabbed her cell, hastily clicking Barry's name. He answered almost instantly. "Barry, you need to get to S.T.A.R. Labs right now! There's a man here with some kind of ice gun. He shot Cisco - I don't know what to do!" Some of the panic started to leak into her voice.

Barry cursed on the other end of the line, very uncharacteristically for him. "Just keep him warm. I'll be there right away!" He hung up and Merry tossed the phone aside carelessly.

There was now mist seeping in through the door that the man had kicked open. They were trapped inside the Cortex. Though it wasn't a fear she'd suffered from before, Merry hastily quashed the claustrophobia she could feel threatening to set in and helped to drag Cisco up into a sitting position. He was shivering violently and still trying to breathe past the shock of the cold. Merry attempted to pry the layers of ice off him. Some of the smaller pieces broke away, but the more she tried, the slicker her hands became. Most of the ice clung solidly to Cisco, still entombing him in freezing body armour.

She made a frustrated sound, not expecting any smart ideas from him right now. She knew nothing about first aid. All she knew about fighting the cold was the clichéd Survival 101 stuff you saw on TV. Well, that was going to have to do. Though it felt like the temperature in the air had already dropped significantly, she resolutely pulled her shirt off over her head.

Even though his teeth were chattering so much he could barely talk, Cisco still couldn't resist a smartass response. "B-buy me... a drink first."

Merry rolled her eyes, drawing on his humour to try and keep calm. "How about you get through this and I buy you a drink afterwards instead?"

"D-d-deal..."

Merry knew this kind of survival trick worked better with skin on skin, but with Cisco's clothes frozen to him, she couldn't do anything about that. She wound her arms tightly around him and pressed him as close to her body as she could. It was horrible. He was freezing to the touch and damp from the ice. It was like trying to cuddle semi-naked with a snowman. But there was no question that she wasn't going to grit her teeth and bear it. She cared about Cisco way more than she'd ever intended to. No way was she going to let anything happen to him.

"Who was that man?"

"C-Captain... C-C-Cold."

Merry didn't know why she'd bothered asking. Some of the codenames Cisco dished out to the meta humans were super lame. She laid her cheek against the side of his head. Even his face was ice cold. "Well, Barry's gonna come and take him out. Then he'll find us."

Though the longer she sat there and held Cisco, the more concerned she became. They were pressed so tightly together that she could feel his heartbeat. Was it slowing down? Or was it just because hers was still thudding so fast? His usually dark skin seemed abnormally pale. Where was Barry? Was Captain Cold still in the building somewhere? Would Barry have to fight him off first? How long would it take to get through the doors if they were frozen shut?

As time passed, Merry found that she was beginning to shiver too. Her breath was starting to crystallise in the air. If Barry didn't come soon, then they were going to freeze together in this cold embrace. Cisco shifted in her arms and she realised that he was trying to pull away - he just didn't have the strength to do so. "What are you doing?"

"Y-you're gonna... fr-freeze too." His voice was barely more than a mumble now.

She put a hand on the side of his head and gently, but firmly, pulled him closer again, even though she was beginning to feel breathless from the cold too. "I'm Welsh; I'm used to it."

He needn't have worried though, because finally, the door crashed open and Barry raced in. "Guys! Are you alright? Captain Cold's gone. I think he took that new heat gun you made."

"Wh-what I wouldn't... g-give to be shot... by a h-h-heat gun," Cisco sighed.

Merry gave a breathy laugh. "Yeah. Only warm hugs from now on please."

"I'll h-hold you... to that."

 **XXX**

 **Author's Note!  
** I've been hitting some major writing slumps with my main stories lately, so I figured I'd try my hand at some short pieces to hopefully get my creative juices flowing again. I've never been very good at writing anything that isn't excessively long, so I'm hoping to change that!

These pieces that I'm going to be doing a fair few of are what you'd call drabbles or flash fiction, intended to be based upon short bursts of creativity. The themes used for these are all from lists of writing prompts found online. They're all picked at random, using a random choice generator on Google.

Some of the prompts I got for certain couples were incredibly appropriate! Obviously my first thought for this one was going to be Captain Cold. Who is frickin' awesome by the way! He's in the minority of villains that the Flash show has done really well with (Wells, Grodd, the Trickster) and not just really lacklustre, like all of the others. So getting to include him, however briefly, was a lot of fun!


End file.
